Where Will AJ Lee Go from Here in WWE?

AJ Lee has made a habit of getting involved in the WWE’s biggest angles.

Over the summer, she constantly found herself in the middle of a giant love triangle (or is it love square?) that involved CM Punk, Kane, Daniel Bryan and, perhaps most importantly, the WWE Championship. Now, she is the central focus of the ongoing feud between John Cena and the heel duo of Vickie Guerrero and Dolph Ziggler.

As we all know, AJ has been accused of having an affair with Cena while she was the Raw General Manager. Both AJ and Cena have denied any type of inappropriate relationship, but Vickie has been hell-bent on trying to prove that they’re lying.

On this week’s Raw, AJ and Cena didn’t exactly help their case, either. They engaged in a long, passionate kiss in the middle of the ring, and then AJ went absolute bonkers on Ziggler with a locker-room assault that ultimately left Cena injured.

While this storyline has been a bit ridiculous at times, the brawls between Cena and Ziggler were pretty entertaining, and AJ seems to be thriving once again as the centerpiece of a major storyline. Now that AJ and Cena appear to be a bit of an item, though, we have to wonder exactly where AJ will go from here.

Is AJ’s relationship with Cena going to be a long-term thing, or will it ultimately not matter much in the long run? I think it’s the latter.

Just look back at the AJ/Punk/Bryan/Kane angle over the summer. While it was fun and entertaining at times, it wound up spiraling into, well, basically, nothing. The major payoff of that lengthy angle was a wedding between Bryan and AJ that didn’t even end up taking place.

Instead, AJ’s involvement with Kane, Bryan and Punk sort of just ended, while she went on to become the Raw General Manager instead. Now, she finds herself in a similar situation: in a love-based storyline that may not lead to anything substantial.

There could be some interesting twists and turns down the line, with one possible scenario being that AJ and Dolph were/are actually the ones who are hooking up. But I honestly don’t think the WWE even knows where this storyline is headed for the long-term.

I do, however, think that the company has at least some idea what it wants to do with AJ.

After Tamina Snuka attacked AJ from behind at Survivor Series, it looks like she will now be Vickie’s bodyguard of sorts. At least in the short-term, it seems inevitable that AJ’s current angle with Vickie and Ziggler is leading to a match and feud with Tamina.

That, of course, would be refreshing for AJ’s character. While she’s been the most pushed Diva for most of 2012, she hasn’t stepped into the ring all that often because she’s been too involved in other storylines.

It seems, however, that the recent happenings in the AJ scandal storyline will result in a big match with Tamina, which could be one of the better Divas match in recent memory and might be used to ignite AJ’s quest for the Divas title.

I think that the WWE’s ultimate goal is for AJ’s current angle to be used to build her up into a huge babyface star and, in the short term, topple Tamina in arguably the biggest match of her career.

But in the long term? AJ figures to be the one who goes after Eve Torres and ends her extended reign as the Divas Champion.

Eve and AJ are, far and away, the most over and well-developed female characters in the company, and oddly enough, they are two of the better female wrestlers the WWE has as well. In a company with remarkably few marketable Divas, they are at the top of that list.

While AJ is currently involved in a Jerry Springer-like angle with Cena, Vickie and Ziggler, I don’t think that will lead to a long-term on-screen relationship between AJ and Cena or to AJ turning heel and aligning herself with Ziggler. Those scenarios are certainly possible, but likely? I don’t think so.

The best bet for the WWE is to use this alleged affair angle to get more babyface sympathy for AJ, and once it concludes, have her challenge Eve in a big-time match for the Divas Championship.

The Divas division and its title haven’t mattered in years, but with AJ currently one of the most polarizing characters in the WWE, now is as good a time as ever to change that.

Drake Oz is a WWE Featured Columnist for Bleacher Report. Follow him on Twitter!